Focusing on the Whole Person: Flourishing in Faculty Development

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Future Directions for Faculty Development in Health Professions and Biomedical Education Abstract

Abstract

Healthcare professionals are often thrust into clinical environments that are marked by high-stress situations and encounters. Without proper support and professional development, these high-stress environments can contribute to a decrease in psychological well-being of clinicians (Chang et al., 2018). Additionally, healthcare professionals experience higher levels of Imposter Phenomenon than other U.S. workers, which is linked to increases in risks of burnout, professional dissatisfaction, and suicidal ideation (Shanafelt et al., 2022). We often focus faculty development efforts on providing health care professionals with the most up-to-date clinical research and medical knowledge while often neglecting the facets of faculty development that promote well-being and thriving in the professional space.

Faculty development that focuses on flourishing, “the relative attainment of a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good, including the contexts in which that person lives,” has been tied to the promotion of well-being (VanderWeele, 2017; Vermette et al, 2022; VanderWeele, 2024). A focus on faculty development that promotes flourishing can help healthcare professionals to identify a sense a meaningfulness in their work. Feeling a sense of meaning is crucial for well-being and can help to combat many of the risks associated with high-stress clinical environments in which healthcare professionals practice. Are we doing our faculty a disservice by failing to provide them with guidance and a framework for flourishing in their personal and professional lives?

Future directions for faculty development should include a focus on healthcare professionals as a whole, inclusive of medical knowledge, the most recent healthcare technology, but also support for their well-being. For example, self-reflective exercises and group activities in faculty development sessions can enhance healthcare professionals’ self-esteem and feelings of support in the workplace in order to combat Imposter Phenomenon (Gottlieb, 2020). Additionally, Faculty development sessions that incorporate a Positive Psychology (Carr, 2022) lens can help faculty to focus on what is working well and use those assets to capitalize on strengths that can in turn, promote thriving and flourishing.

Plans for the direction of faculty development in the healthcare professions, focusing on flourishing, could include topics on fostering psychological safety in the learning environment, identifying and leveraging character strengths, and applying practical wisdom in addition to a variety of other topics. Not only should the direction of faculty development move toward flourishing, but expanding these efforts to trainees in the Graduate Medical Education space is an important effort in order to develop well-rounded healthcare professionals at the beginning of their clinical journey.

Author

• Abbey Bachmann, The University of Texas - Health Science Center at Houston